My Favourite Places to Visit Around China

Besides Beijing, there is a whole lot more to this vast country of course. Please, enjoy my list of favourite places to visit around China!

China is a fantastically vast country filled with interesting and unique places to see. Most have heard of the big destinations, Shanghai and Beijing, but they don’t even scratch the surface of what the country has to offer. If you want to delve into China a little further than the main tourist haunts, check out this list for some stunning Chinese destinations.

Guilin (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region)

This misty mountain town is surrounded by rivers and greenery. Within the small town center you can see both Chinese tourists and backpack wielding foreigners making their way to the sites. The city itself has a few interesting museums and decorative parks but the real beauty of Guilin lies within the places that surround it. Visit the famous Reed Flute Cave, admire its limestone formations and stay to watch the laser light show within its caverns. Take a bamboo raft tour down the Li river and stare up at the karst giants that tower over you as you pass by. Snap a photo in front of the infamous scene that is on the back of the 20 RMB note or take a side trip and visit the stunning Longji rice terraces in nearby Longsheng.

Yunnan Province

This province is one of the biggest travel destinations for the Chinese and it also finds itself on the backpacker trail. In the city’s capital Kunming, you can make a day of touring temples or head to The Stone Forest, a UNESCO site filled with so many karst towers that it resembles a forest made of stone. Head to the backpacker mecca of Dali and visit the Cangshan Mountains or travel to Lijiang for the ancient villages and the scenic Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Probably the most famous is the Shangrila, which holds a large Tibetan population and is loved for its monasteries and historic town center.